Pumpkin carving has become a popular past time especially during the Halloween season. In fact, pumpkin carving has become so popular that there is now a demand for a variety of pumpkin carving implements including pumpkin face patterns, carving tools and drilling tools, as well as a variety of pumpkin carving kits. These pumpkin carving implements and kits can be used by children or adults with a carving skill level ranging from a hobbyist to a professional.
Often during the Halloween season, scary faces, characters or other images are carved into pumpkin shells, and during night hours, a lit candle is placed into the pumpkin shell so that the image is brightly illuminated in the dark of night for view by any passers-by. Either short, slender candles or votive candles are typically employed for this purpose. Usually, votive candles are set, unsecured, into the pumpkin. Homemade holders of aluminum foil, or candles set onto plates with wax are sometime used to hold candles. None of these methods holds the candles securely, allowing them to tip over and be extinguished or even permitting them to fall out of the pumpkin. Also, none of these methods contains the wax of votive candles, causing a reduction in burning time.
Additionally, as candles burn in pumpkins, it is necessary to provide a chimney or flue so that smoke and heat from the candle can escape. This flue or chimney is usually carved with a knife and consequently appears as an unsightly non-uniform, polygonal hole. This chimney is typically located at the top of the pumpkin proximately to the stem. Due to the thickness of the pumpkin shell near the stem, the difficulty of cutting such a chimney with a knife is increased as is the risk of injury to the carver.
Another drawback of these existing techniques in illuminating carved pumpkins is that, as the candle burns over a period of time, it diminishes in size thereby effecting overall illumination of the carved pumpkin. Additionally, where the pumpkin is located outdoors, there remains the possibility that a gust of wind will merely extinguish the lit candle.
There is therefore, a need in the industry to provide an alternative means for illuminating the interior of a carved pumpkin or the like. It is further desirable for an illumination device accomplishing this need to eliminate the drawbacks caused by the wax of votive candles and to eliminate the need for providing a chimney or flue in the pumpkin, while increasing both illumination time and efficiency. Moreover, a need exists for a lightweight, inexpensive illumination device which may be planted into the fleshy shell of a carved pumpkin so that the pumpkin will securely hold the illumination device. Such an illumination device should be capable of inclusion in a kit or sold alone. The present invention satisfies these needs and provides these benefits.